The present invention relates to an alignment system for the reflectors in a laser cavity.
High energy laser systems have the requirement of maintaining the physical orientation of their optical elements to within microradian tolerances. However, the environment in which the optical elements reside may impart upon them severe vibrations. This is, for example, the case in a chemical laser in which the laser medium is fluid-dynamically and thermodynamically established, maintained and replenished. Moreover, the gases involved pass through the laser cavity at supersonic speeds so that, indeed, physical movement of the several parts of the system over a wide range of frequencies is more or less inevitable. The alignment problem involves specifically the mutual alignment of the reflectors defining the optical oscillator. However, the laser cavity is quite "noisy" so that utilization of active optical sensing in the laser cavity is more or less impossible.